The double-murder trial of Aaron Hernandez kicked off in dramatic fashion on Wednesday, when defense attorney Jose Baez compared the state's use of a key witness, Alexander Bradley, as "making a deal with the devil."

"It takes a lot of nerve to put that man on the stand and ask you all to believe him beyond reasonable doubt," Baez told a jury of nine women and six men.

Hernandez, 27, faces murder charges in the deaths of Daniel Jorge Correia de Abreu, 29 and Safiro Teixeira Furtado, 28 in July 2012. The former New England Patriots tight end faces several other separate charges, including the unlawful possession of a firearm outside the home and intimidation of a witness. That witness was Alexander Bradley, and the "intimidation" was a bullet to the face.

The trial and court proceedings, conducted by Judge Jeffrey Locke at Suffolk Superior Court in Boston, is expected to last up to six weeks. Locke announced there would be 15 jurors in total, though only twelve would be chosen to serve as the final deliberating jurors. Hernandez is currently serving a life sentence for the 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd.

The courtroom was filled with grief-stricken relatives of Abreu and Furtado. The families could be seen crying as First Assistant District Attorney Patrick Haggan described the "deadly accuracy" of the suspect's gunshots. Sitting closely behind the victims' relatives was Hernandez's fiancee Shayanna Jenkins, who is also the mother of his child.

In the prosecution's opening statement, ADA Patrick Haggan offered a narrative that he frequently promised would be supported by video evidence and witness testimony.

Prosecution:

Hernandez, who was 22 at the time of the killings in 2012, was described as a partier; someone who frequented the night scene in the clubs of Boston; a man with a "career blossoming, soon to sign a multi-million dollar contract for the New England Patriots."

But, as Bradley testified in 2015 for the murder case of Odin Lloyd, Hernandez was extremely paranoid. The suspect felt as though he was being "tried, tested" and that people were following him. Even after a big football loss he became touchy, according to Haggan.

The killings of Abreu and Furtado were allegedly a result of this impulsive, aggressive manner. The prosecution states Hernandez shot the two men in a fit of rage several hours after Abreu allegedly danced into Hernandez in a nightclub and spilled his drink on the football star.

Abreu had come out to the club with four other friends, including Furtado. They were friends who had emigrated to the United States from Cape Verde, and now lived in Dorchester. The five friends decided to go out after having a barbecue in Dorchester on the night of the shootings. They used a 2003 BMW lent by Abreu's sister, Naseau, to drive to the Cure Lounge on Tremont Street.

Hernandez and Bradley visited the lounge on the same night, and even parked their Toyota SUV in the same parking garage as the would-be victims. Hernandez got the car for free from a Rhode Island dealership in exchange for Patriots tickets and an autographed football, according to Haggan.

When Abreu bumped into Hernandez and spilled his drink, smiling, Hernandez felt threatened. He convinced himself the friends were following him and Bradley. The three surviving friends had separated, and never saw the interaction between Abreu and Hernandez. Hernandez and Bradley spent only nine minutes in the club that Sunday night.

Around 2:30 a.m., when Cure Lounge was closing on what witnesses say was a quiet July night, Abreu, Furtado and their three friends returned to their car in the nearby garage. Haggan said Hernandez spotted the group and waited, watching them get into the BMW to leave.

Soon after Hernandez reportedly pulled up in the Toyota SUV to the car of friends at a stoplight and yelled "Yo!" and a racial slur until the group looked over. Hernandez then allegedly shot them with five bullets from a silver .38-caliber revolver: "Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang," Haggan recounted for the courtroom. Hernandez continued to pull the trigger even after all its bullets were fired.

Abreu and Furtado were shot dead, while a friend in the backseat, Aquilino Freire, survived being shot in the forearm.

Haggan said a trusted cousin of Hernandez, Tanya Singleton, helped conceal the SUV the suspects were driving that night. When Boston police were investigating Hernandez as a suspect in the Odin Lloyd murder case between February and June of 2013, they found the SUV in a garage at the Bristol, Connecticut home where Hernandez and Singleton spent much of their youth.

In that same time frame, police said they found the murder weapon, a .38-caliber Smith and Wesson, in the car of Jailene Diaz-Ramos, a friend of Hernandez's. Defense attorney Jose Baez argued the gun was taken from Kentucky and manufactured in 1913, and did not have Hernandez's fingerprints on it.

Haggan warned the jury Wednesday to pay close attention to the "how's" and "why's" in the case.

Jose Baez spoke candidly to jurors, smiling and joking that unlike Tom Brady, Hernandez was "not the most popular Patriot in this town." Baez attempted to poke three holes in the prosecution's case: a violent criminal and drug trafficker as a key witness, a lack of credible motive and a lack of forensic evidence.

"Could you convict if there is no forensic evidence?" Baez asked the jury as he launched into his opening statement.

Baez is well known for his defense of Casey Anthony in a high-profile case on the death of her two-year-old daughter. Anthony, much to the outrage of social media users, was found not guilty in the murder of her daughter.

Baez emphasized the lack of fingerprints and what he said were questionable investigative practices by the Boston police after the killings. The attorney suspiciously questioned missing footage from Cure Lounge on the night of the shootings. No one reportedly saw the interaction between Hernandez and Abreu on the night of the killings.

An alleged fan photo shot by a security guard at the club was also not used as evidence, which Baez said would have revealed whether Hernandez's shirt was stained or not that night. The attorney persisted that police did not investigate hard enough because of Hernandez's celebrity status.

"That's what it's all about, a notch on your belt," Baez claimed, accusing the District Attorney's office of using Hernandez, "a fallen Patriot," as a means to win a high-profile case.

Baez said Wednesday his defense will focus on discrediting Alexander Bradley, who is currently facing jail time for a violent gun offense. Baez said Bradley wanted "another shot at life," and that serving as the state's witness to a big-profile case was his ticket out.

Bradley is also the reason Hernandez faces an intimidation of witness charge. In February 2013, when the two friends traveled to Palm Beach for a Super Bowl party, Hernandez allegedly shot Bradley in the face. Haggan said Bradley, who miraculously survived but was left blinded in one eye, was shot and left in a parking lot 24 hours after mentioning the Boston killings to Hernandez.

"At the end of the day when this case is over, they're going to ask you," Baez told jurors, "that [Bradley's] testimony should convince you beyond reasonable doubt...Zero way they're going to be able to do that. Zero."